Well-Rested Red Devils Destroy Goshen in DIII Playoffs

SR QB Larkin Thomas led Tippecanoe to a 49-7 victory over Goshen after a productive week off for the Red Devils

Tipp City, OH — A great thing about the playoffs is you often don’t know what you’re gonna get when teams from different areas get together on a crisp Friday night in November.

Goshen made the hour-plus drive north to Tipp City Park from Clermont County on Friday night with a 10-1 football team. Co-champions of the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference American division, they boasted SBAAC Offensive Player of the Year Gage Croley sharing a backfield with all-conference QB Caden Slusher.

They were sure to bring their best against a Tippecanoe Red Devils squad on a nine-game winning streak and well-rested after having a bye last week. 

What could be better than a pair of one-loss teams squaring off in the second round of the playoffs? 

Well, anyone who hoped for a competitive football game was quickly disabused of any notion they might get one as the Red Devils ran out to a 42-0 lead and road the running clock to a 49-7 win to advance in the Division III, Region 12 playoffs. 

Then again, the lopsided nature of the “contest” was not a total surprise. 

The Warriors played one team with a winning record in the regular season, Wilmington in Week 9. The Hurricane prevailed 27-7 that night, perhaps a hint of what was to come in Week 12 despite Goshen’s 39-36 win over 9-2 Cincinnati Hughes in the first round of the playoffs.

The Red Devils beat three teams with winning records — Troy, Butler and Fairborn — along with two more that were 5-5 (Piqua and Xenia). Their one loss is arguably — or perhaps not — the best in the state. It came on this same field in Week 1 to Bellbrook, the top-ranked team in Division III and Region 12. 

Since then, Matt Burgbacher’s team has done nothing but get better, even during their week off according to both the coach and his star quarterback, senior Larkin Thomas. 

Coach always talks about coming out fast, and tonight we came out fast,” said Thomas, who threw two touchdown passes and ran for another. “We controlled the game up front with that O line, and our defense put fear into them and caused some turnovers. And you know we were just rolling. It’s kind of like some others say, we were in that flow state where we knew what we were going to do, and we executed it.”

Goshen received the opening kickoff and gained one first down before punting the ball away. On the bright side for the visitors, they got a great roll on the kick and downed it at the Tipp 16. 

The 47-yard punt made the Red Devils earn their first score, but that turned out to be little problem. Seven plays was all they needed.

Colston Artz finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown, the only play that gained less than seven yards. 

The big strikes were a 17-yard pass from Larkin Thomas to Bentley Heckman and a 28-yard connection between the two two plays later. 

“I could have sat back there and pulled a chair up. They did a great job of protecting,” Thomas said. “The receivers did a great job running the routes, getting that ball in the end zone like they’re supposed to.” 

The Warriors responded with their best drive of the night, mixing the run and the pass to advance all the way to the Tippecanoe 10-yard line, but that was as close as they would get to scoring. 

With first down at the Tippecanoe 14, Croley ran three times for a net of four yards. 

Rather than try a short field goal, Goshen went for it on fourth-and-6, a decision that looked more questionable after Slosher rolled to his right and threw the ball to an unoccupied spot in the back of the end zone rather than try to force the ball into tight coverage with nothing to lose.

That, of course, resulted in a turnover on downs, and Tipp wasted little time flipping the field, needing only six plays to cover 90 yards. 

Artz went for 25 on the first play, and Levi Jones finished it with a 20-yard touchdown on a slick cutback run.

“That running back is tough,” Burgbacher said of Coley. “He had 2,000 yards last year, and he had over 1,400 coming into this game so we knew it was going to be a great challenge for us. And just with what they run, it’s a triple option. They just do it out of the shotgun, but we were disciplined tonight.” 

The Warriors, on the other hand, were not. They turned the ball over on their next five possessions, first when they mishandled a punt snap that Tipp recovered at the Goshen 8. 

Thomas scored on a 10-yard run two plays later, and Tippecanoe quickly got the ball back in Warrior territory when Goshen botched a handoff on a third down. 

Ethan Rice recovered for Tippecanoe at the Goshen 47, and Thomas cashed it in three plays later with a rainbow touchdown pass over the middle to Heckman for 50 yards. 

That made it 28-0 with 7:26 to go, and the script repeated before the half came to an end. 

Goshen again fumbled a handoff near midfield, and again Tipp recovered. This time it was Rohan Nicholls, who set his team up at the Goshen 44.

Four plays later, Artz scored from eight yards out, a run set up by a 23-yard run by Thomas that converted a third-and-12. 

Leading 35-0 with under four minutes to go in the second quarter, Tipp looked like it might be done scoring, but that was not the case.

Nicholls picked off a Goshen pass on the first play of the next drive, setting up Tipp at midfield with 3:37 to go. 

Again Thomas and Heckman connected for a score three plays later, this time on a throw deep over the middle that saw Heckman juke a pair of defenders out of their shoes near the 10 then scoot into the end zone for a 38-yard score. 

“I loved how the boys came out and played,” Burgbacher said. “We talked about getting off to a fast start all week, and that’s what we did. 

“I love the tempo our offense played with, and that’s a tough offense that we were facing, and we knew we were going to give up a first down or two on that first series. But I tell you what, I loved how when we did get the ball offensively, they couldn’t get lined up defensively. We played with that tempo, and it was the whole first half.”

The Red Devils got the ball to start the second half and went right to work, starting with a 56-yard kickoff return by Toby Hoover. 

Four plays later, Jones found the end zone again from six yards out, and the PAT kick made it 49-0.

Goshen finally found the end zone early in the fourth quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run by Croley, but that was just a bit of window dressing on a game that was otherwise all Tipp. 

“Coach talked about this week leaving a legacy,” Thomas said. “Every team every team is known for what they do in November, and you kind of have to just forget everything, and you have to drive with your guys, senior or not, and you got to play like you’re a senior, and you got to you got to leave that legacy in November.

“It’s kill or be killed in November.” 

Next week the Tipp will be home again, this time against No. 3 seed Cincinnati McNicholas, a 10-0 winner over Alter on Friday night. 

Speaking before that game had ended, Burgbacher said he didn’t know much about either team. 

“That’s what I love about the playoffs. I love the playoffs because we’ve never played Goshen, and we’ve never played McNick,” Burgbacher said. “But that’s the fun part about them. You know, you can try to gage that off the film and all that stuff, but you really don’t know till you get out there.”